Malcolm Dalglish

Malcolm Dalglish (b. August 14, 1952, Indianapolis - ) – Hammered dulcimer player and builder, composer and choral director. A resident of Bloomington (home base for his publishing company, Ooolitic Music), Dalglish is a well-known performer and composer in folk and traditional music circles. His performances offer a blend of virtuoso playing, Celtic-flavored melodies, theater, stories, and songs. As a young man, he worked as a carpenter in the Tennessee Mountains, where he took his first hammered dulcimer lesson in 1972. He found out really quickly that he wanted to build dulcimers. While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory, he met Grey Larsen, a tin whistle/Irish flute player, who would at first make British Isles flavored music with Dalglish. This collaboration led to three albums from 1977 to 1982, the first of which, Banish Misfortune, sold 80,000 copies. At some point, they both moved Bloomington. With the addition of Pete Sutherland on guitar, the three formed Metamora, which recorded four albums on various labels including Windam Hill from 1984 and 1990. Around the same time, Dalglish started to get interested in making his performances more expansive and theatrical. This led to Hymnody of Earth (Musical Heritage Society,1991), which included a chorus. In 1997, he formed the Ooolites, a choral group of folk singers/dancers. His later albums, which were released on his own Ooolitic label, include his choral group. One of those is an arrangement of Hymnody of Earth (1999), which choirs around the country -- including the Indianapolis Children's Choir -- have performed. To date, he has three published choral works with Boosey Hawkes, two of which are accompanied by hammered dulcimer.